05/18/2024
The Starfish Story
After I got back from my recent mission trip in Kenya, I started thinking about a little story commonly called, “The Starfish Story.” There are different versions of the story floating around, but it usually goes something like this:
One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed boy picking up and gently throwing things into the ocean.
Approaching the boy he asked, “Young man, what are you doing?”
“Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die,” the boy replied.
The man laughed and said, “Do you realize there are miles of miles of beach and countless starfish? You can’t possibly make any difference.”
After listening politely, the boy bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the surf. Then, he smiled at the man and said, “I made a difference to that one.”
Typically, when this story is told, the point of the storyteller is that we should aspire to be like this boy and strive to make a difference in the world, even in small ways. That’s a really good thing to aspire to for sure. And you might think that’s where I’m going with this blog, but I’m not. The story does apply to me, but not the way you might think. Even though I’d like to identify with the boy and see myself as a hero, making a difference in the world, the reality is that I’m more like a starfish, stranded on a beach: breathless, helpless, and hopeless. To be honest, that’s kind of how I was feeling before I went on this trip: kind of spiritually breathless, like a poor pathetic little starfish, gasping on a beach. The Bible says that our condition is actually worse than the poor starfish. We aren’t just on the beach gasping for breath – we are dead. Eph. 2:1. A dead person (or starfish) can’t do one single thing to save himself (or itself). However, the verse right after this section in Ephesians begins with the two most beautiful and hope-inspiring words a believer can hear: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ...” Eph. 2:4-5 (emphasis added). Thankfully, we have a Savior who breathes life into us; a Savior who pulls us out of the abyss of despair and into glory. The beauty of it is that His light often shines through other believers. Through the songs and laughs of the children who live at the Bethel Children’s Centre, through seeing young men and women who grew up at Bethel and are now making their way in the world and letting their light shine before others, and through sharing the love of my dear friends Andrew and Agnes Mukumbu, well, the good Lord tossed this old starfish back in the water, and I’m feeling pretty good right now.
